Time to Pretend
by writergirl8
Summary: "I don't think that playing Matthew and Charlotte means we can never act together ever again. I mean, we grew up together, Annabeth. We spent our childhood on sets together, we've even been married. And if we've both found a project we want to do, I don't think the fact that we're going to be starring opposite each other should stop us."


**A/N: This is a birthday gift for one of the sweetest people in this world, Mari (percyyoulittleshit on tumblr.) She is the reason I started writing PJO fanfiction in the first place, and it was only fair that I give her a fic for her birthday. I hope this fic brings you happiness Mari, because I know you bring so many people, including myself, happiness every single day. Please never stop being you, and always know that you are deeply loved.**

 **Also, the title is from "Time to Pretend" by MGMT. And this fic has spoilers for Anna and the French Kiss by Stefanie Perkins, so if you haven't read that yet, please re-evaluate your choices, and also tread carefully. You've been warned.**

 **With that in mind... enjoy! ~writergirl8**

The steam that curls around Percy's styrofoam cup is tickling his nose.

He thinks that it might be more of how he suspects it would feel if it were tickling his nose, but it's still distracting him from drinking his hot chocolate. When Annabeth clears her throat, announcing her arrival, Percy is hyper-focused on the swirl of steam that is still entangling itself around his nostrils.

"What exactly are you doing?" she asks, genuine concern in her voice, and at the sound of her speaking, Percy leaps out of his chair instinctively, startled by her presence.

"Hey!" he says breathlessly. "Uh, hi, I-" There's hot chocolate on the table. Spilled hot chocolate, to be exact, and Percy is grabbing for napkins and Annabeth is too and they're kind of laughing at the ridiculousness of all of it as they swipe vigorously at the table top. "Sorry, I'm such a freaking-"

He looks up for the first time at Annabeth's laugh. He hasn't really heard that laugh in years, and it rams into him in a way that makes Percy feel just as tipped over as the styrofoam cup which is now lying sadly on the table.

"I'll grab you a new one when I get my coffee," Annabeth says, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear nervously. She's probably nervous because Percy is just _looking_ at her. But he doesn't care about the hot chocolate. Annabeth Chase is standing in front of him for the first time in four years, and he honestly feels like his insides are about to hurl themselves out of his body just for the chance to be closer to her.

"Uh… hey," he says again. "Hi. Hello."

"Hi?" Annabeth replies. "Um, I guess I'll go grab my coffee and you can finish up clearing this?"

"Yeah!" Percy says, nodding emphatically. "Really good call. Smart."

"Unsurprising," Annabeth says, teasing lightly. "I've always been smarter than you."

She reaches over abruptly and squeezes his wrist before she turns around and walks to the cash register, and Percy thinks about how strange it is that it feels different despite the fact that those hands have been in his life for twelve years. But he hasn't seen her for the last four of those, and there's a part of him that's startled by how much has stayed the same.

Annabeth still has the same hair- princess curls that go down to her waist, frequently braided back when she isn't working. And her eyes are the same too. They should be cold, but somehow they never are when she's looking at him, and he's always loved that about her. Today, she's wearing a pair of jeans and a plain long sleeved t-shirt and she looks more grown-up than she did when she was walking towards him in a wedding dress five years ago.

"Okay," Annabeth says, sliding into the seat across from where Percy had been sitting. He takes her cue and plops unceremoniously back into his chair. "This is for you, and this one's for me."

"Thanks," Percy says. "So… uh… how's it going?"

Annabeth smiles slightly, taking a sip of her coffee.

"It seems we're in a little bit of a situation," she says, reminding him of why they're there. "And I want to decide by the end of the day, actually, so that I can start planning. So…" She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone, flipping open the light blue case and smoothing her fingers over the touch pad. "I took notes," she says in response to Percy's quizzical look.

He rolls his eyes.

"Still obsessed with organization, then?"

"College only exacerbated it," Annabeth admits, shrugging one shoulder.

"Right! You went to college!" recalls Percy. "Cornell, right? What did you study, again?"

"Architecture."

"Oh, of course."

"What else?"

He grins at her.

"Nothing. You're Annabeth Chase. You get what you want."

"And I want to do this movie, Percy."

Her eyes are serious, which is pretty damn unsettling because he thought he had cured her of that particular affliction back when they were kids. He nods slowly, rubbing his palm absently across the scruff on his jaw as he considers this.

"I like it too, though."

Annabeth sighs.

"We can't do it together," she says flatly.

"Are you _sure_?" he asks, because he gets why she's concerned, but that doesn't mean she's right. "It's been four years since Matthew's Universe ended. Are you sure audiences are still going to look at us and see Matthew and Charlotte?"

The look on her face makes Percy feel like he's just asked if she would mind putting face paint on and stalking a circus to its final destination in the firey pits of hell.

"We're always going to be Matthew and Charlotte- even if we aren't acting together, we'll still be them. They're going to follow us forever."

"I mean, after being them for eight seasons, that kind of makes sense," Percy points out. "But… I don't know. I don't think that means we can never do anything together ever again. I mean, we grew up together, Annabeth. We spent our childhood on sets together, we've even been _married_. We're good at acting together. We're comfortable in it. And if we've both found a project we want to do, I don't think the fact that we're going to be starring opposite each other should mean that we just can't do it."

She looks anxious, taking a long, drawn-out sip of her coffee to try to give herself enough time to come up with the right answer. Percy doesn't really know if there necessarily is one, but he waits anyways, albeit impatiently.

"It shoots in Paris," Annabeth says, her voice taking on an edge of excitement. "I don't want to lose the opportunity to spend time there, and I don't want to take it away from you, either."

"So we do it together," he urges. "C'mon, Annabeth. The studio wants both of us. They can capitalize on our Matthew's Universe fame, and we can just give really, _really_ good performances and give this move the attention it deserves." He cracks a smile. "Who could do it better than us?"

Annabeth dithers momentarily before her posture slouches slightly and she nods, resting her elbow on the table and propping her chin on her hand.

"Okay," she says slowly, squinting at Percy. "Are you sure about this?"

"Completely," he promises.

"Fine," Annabeth says, shaking her head and grinning. "We'll do this together."

"Yes!" Percy cheers, slamming his hands triumphantly onto the table. "Anna, meet your St. Claire."

It's been exactly a month since Percy was on a film set, and he isn't really used to being on a schedule anymore.

This happens every time he has a break in shooting. There's a pattern. He stops setting an alarm, he does at least one reckless thing because it's no big deal if he breaks several bones while not doing any projects, and he solidifies the whole thing by growing a beard. His mom teasingly calls it his 'breakup beard,' despite the fact that Percy never takes his breakups too hard. He's never had a reason to deeply mourn a relationship, so instead he laments the ends of projects by getting facial hair.

His first breakup beard had been when he was twenty years old and the last episode of Matthew's Universe had finished filming. Percy had spent exactly two weeks letting his freedom explode all over his life. Then he had promptly gotten very bored and had ended up spending day after day helping Annabeth shop and pack for college while he auditioned for random television shows and got most of the parts only to turn them down.

Ultimately, Percy hadn't settled on a movie until after Annabeth had left for Cornell. He'd watched her build new relationships and he'd watched the text messages slowly die off and that was when he had realized that she was moving on, and he had to do so as well. Annabeth always knew the best thing to do. She was impeccable that way.

She's impeccable in every way. Which is why Percy shouldn't be surprised when his phone vibrates with an incoming call exactly ten minutes before his alarm is scheduled to go off, and Annabeth's contact picture lights up the screen.

"Wha…?"

"I knew you weren't awake!" Annabeth says, and he thinks that if voices could somehow sound like eye-rolling, Annabeth's would. "Come on, I'm already in hair and makeup."

"That's because yours takes thirty years longer than mine does," Percy yawns. "Which is why I always have to get there thirty years after you do."

"Crafty has waffles. Get to set."

She's so serious that Percy feels like adding an "aye aye, captain" before Annabeth hangs up.

By the time he gets to set, Jason Grace is already seated in a chair at the makeup table, looking over the pages that they are going to be filming today. They've met each other only a few times, the table read being one of them, because Jason spends most of his time doing indie movies and Shakespeare. His entire body of work treats movies like they are philosophical questions, which is why it's kind of weird that Jason would be doing a rom com.

Then again, Percy doesn't usually do them, either. He prefers historical movies, or fantasy movies. Basically anything that will allow him to dress up in a cool costume and wield a sword.

"Hey, man," says Percy, swinging himself into the chair next to Jason. "How's it going?"

"Pretty well," Jason replies, pushing his glasses up his nose as a makeup artist rubs some concealer into his cheek with a brush. "You?"

"I'm excited," Percy says. "I guess we're filming a cafeteria scene today."

Jason nods.

"One of the first ones, yeah," he says. "Is your British accent ready to go?"

Percy hadn't had a dialect coach this time around, but that's mostly because he's done this a handful of times. His first British accent was atrocious, but he's better now. His mom likes to tease him that he should stick to Nicholas Sparks novels, as he's only decent with southern accents. Percy would have to agree, honestly.

"I think so," he says modestly.

"This one doesn't use a spit bucket, you know," announces Annabeth, flouncing into the room. She's already in makeup, and she's got a robe over her costume to keep it from getting dirty. "Can you guys hurry up? We've been waiting forever."

'We' turns out to be Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper, the female counterparts to Percy and Jason's St. Claire and Josh. Hazel, their Meridith, is a newbie on the scene, and the youngest of the five of them. She smiles kindly at Percy, offering him a small, shy wave, and he recalls liking her when he had met her at the table read.

"It's because they get to sleep later than we did."

Piper McClean, who plays Rashmi, is a legacy- her father and grandfather before her had all been in the business, and she has been making her way behind them. Percy knows her the best, having met her at several after parties over the course of his time in Hollywood. He offers her a mock-offended look.

"Get out of my makeup trailer," commands Percy, pointing a finger towards the exit. "This is a boy's club."

"As if," Annabeth responds, pulling up a stool between him and Jason just as a makeup artist comes over to greet Percy. Piper and Hazel chatter to each other while Annabeth tilts her phone towards Percy, showing him a text message she had received earlier that morning.

Grover Underwood: [6:25] _Hey, guys! Hope you two have a great time back in high school. It's so weird to think about the two of you on set without me. Do me a favor and play a prank on somebody. Just for old times' sake :)_

"It is going to be weird, now that I think about it," Percy says, suddenly feeling the loss. He remembers sitting on the floor of his tiny apartment during season one of Matthew's Universe and watching scary movies with Annabeth and Grover. Even though Grover was older, they had always gotten along well. Percy and Annabeth had grown closer as they got older, a result of being confined to small spaces with the same people every day for eight years. But it had been a great friendship with Grover from the start, and it's going to be weird to do a movie with Annabeth but no Grover to play Percy's best friend, on and off screen.

"Then I suggest you don't think about it," Annabeth suggests. "Shut it down."

Her words are harsh, but when she knocks her head against his elbow and looks up at him from her position on the stool, Percy can't help himself. He feels the same warmth spreading through him that he used to feel every time Annabeth would crawl into bed with him and kiss him on the mouth, resting her head against his shoulder as they fell asleep.

But then the director would yell cut and they would do it all over again, and it's always been so _odd_ that they have been to some of the most intimate places on earth together but none of it, absolutely none of it, has been real.

Something is hanging over Percy's head as he makes his way out of the trailer and gets in costume. He can't shake it as he walks onto the freezing cold set and sees SOAP's cafeteria for the first time. Annabeth is sitting at a table, talking to Piper animatedly, and it's just like it was in the book… just like Percy pictured it.

This is why he loves film. Even without his on-screen and off-screen best friend, it's still pretty amazing.

"Hi!" Annabeth says, waving him over. "You ready to do this?"

"Course I am," Percy says, shrugging it off. She narrows her eyes.

"Then what's with the frown?"

"Nothing you need to worry about."

"But I do anyways," Annabeth says, voice surprisingly gentle. "Hey, are you nervous about forgetting your lines?"

Now he knows she's joking.

"Oh yeah. You know me. Always unprofessional," Percy replies cheerfully.

"For someone who plays as many pranks as you do, I don't know if you can say that with such clear sarcasm. This is a very _gray_ area."

He gets kicked off of the set so that they can start the scene, and he runs his lines over and over again in his head, hoping that the British accent will effortlessly kick in. At his cue, Percy enters the scene.

And everything is okay when Percy takes a seat at the table along with the rest of the cast and Annabeth looks up at him with Anna's shy eyes and offers him a small, sweet smile. This is what they're good at. They aren't Charlotte and Matthew, but they are always something when they exist together like this. Something so heavy and important that Percy can still feel the weight of it at twenty-four years old, watching Annabeth watch him.

He ducks closer to her, raising a conspiratorial eyebrow.

"'Unless… unless you're one of those girls who doesn't like eating. Can't tolerate that, unfortunately. We're going to have to ban you from this table for all of eternity.'"

Annabeth bites her lip shyly.

"'I just… um… I don't know how to order.'"

She says it like a question. Nice touch.

"'It's simple,'" Jason shrugs. "'Get in line, order. Then give them your card to swipe and allow them to remove two pints of blood from your body.'"

Percy exchanges a grin with him, which Jason matches perfectly.

Yeah. This is gonna be great.

Suddenly, he's not as worried.

(The look he gives Annabeth may be a little bit too Percy and not enough St. Claire, but he doesn't really mind.)

* * *

The moment they get over jet lag happens to coincide with the evening they have their first night shoot.

It's a scene where Anna gets spectacularly drunk, and St. Claire is having a fight with Ellie, his girlfriend, and they have to film it at night because they are blocking off a sidewalk in order to film it on the streets of Paris.

They don't finish until 2am. Annabeth has been hunched over the entire shoot, pretending to be drunk, and now exhaustion evident in her eyes despite how immaculately professional she usually is. She bounces up and down in the coat that covers the slinky black dress she wears, trying to keep warm and stay awake simultaneously. She is the most relieved of any of them when the final "cut!" is hollered out at the cast, and they all visibly relax, ready to go home and go to sleep. Percy changes out of his costume quickly and hands it off to the right people, then waits by Annabeth's car for her to emerge from the costume trailer.

She waves at him as she approaches, shivering in her black peacoat. He notices, with a small smile, that her hair is in a ponytail. It's messy and haphazard and she had clearly done it herself. Percy likes this- the distinction between real Annabeth and the women she plays. He likes being able to tell.

"You feeling okay?" he asks when she's close enough, because she's been stumbling around fake-drunk all night and getting emotional and screaming at Percy, and he thinks he'd be pretty exhausted if he did the same thing.

"Of course I am," Annabeth says, offhand. "Just… hungry."

"Me too," he admits, realizing it once she's said it. "Damn it. What's open at 2am?"

Annabeth shrugs.

"I'm not from here, you know," she says, kidding with him. "We should be able to find a cafe, though."

He likes that, too- the _we_. When she says it, he can feel the words echoing through his body, clanging against its chambers. He hasn't been a 'we' with anyone in forever, and it feels warm when Annabeth says it, punctuating it with a smile. It comes to them effortlessly- has _always_ come to them effortlessly.

Annabeth beckons him into her car and leans forward to ask her driver about open places. Percy slides in next to her and puts on his seatbelt mechanically, trying not to be jealous of her perfect French. He wonders if she'd studied it when she knew they were going to be doing this movie, or if she'd learned it in college. Both of them had studied Spanish when they were on set at Matthew's Universe. Percy can remember quizzing each other with flashcards between takes, at Annabeth's insistence. He had hated it, but he put up with it for her.

Two years ago, he had gone to Spain for promo purposes, and when he was speaking the language, he had missed Annabeth sharply, like the thought of her was constantly jabbing him in the side. Now that she's here, settling back in the seat next to him, Percy can't help but feel like he shouldn't waste this. What happens when this movie is over? Back to missing her?

Suddenly, he doesn't want to do that.

"I was in New York for theatre when you were a sophomore," he says suddenly. "I was doing a comedy play."

"I remember," Annabeth says. "I think some of my friends saw you."

"Yeah, well," Percy mumbles. "We should have seen each other. I was there for, like, six months."

Annabeth cringes.

"We were busy."

It's not an excuse. They both know it.

"I don't want to do that again," he says. "Being on this shoot with you… it reminds me of what we had when we were on Matthew's Universe. Even though it's only been a few weeks."

"I know," Annabeth responds after a few moments of careful deliberation. She rubs the pad of her thumb against the soft seat of the car, avoiding his eyes. "I think when someone has been your limb for so long, you forget how necessary they are to you."

"I like that," Percy says, laughing slightly. "Limbs."

"That's why we were able to bounce back so quickly."

He nods.

"That's it. For sure."

It's been easier to sink back into friendship with Annabeth than Percy ever would have thought. When they were teenagers, he had always been nervous around her, worried that she would see right through him, as she always did, and realize what a tremendous crush he had on her. He was worried that Annabeth finding out how much he savored kissing her on-screen would make it that much more difficult to fight and make up when they had to do it as their characters. There came a point where he forgot to draw that line between Matthew and Percy, and every kiss he gave Annabeth would mean a million things that she never felt when he was kissing her.

He's glad she could never tell. He hopes she can't tell now.

"This is it," Annabeth says, tapping on the window. "Thank god they're still open."

"Hey," Percy says, catching her wrist as Annabeth makes to get out of the car. He's not sure how insecure his eyes are as she glances down at his fingers, clamped around her wrist, and then up at his eyes. "You're gonna-"

"Order for you?"

"Yeah."

"Sure," Annabeth promises, trying to conceal a smile.

He _hopes_ she can't tell now. He honestly doesn't think he would be able to stand it if Annabeth Chase were to find out how much he wants her.

* * *

The world could not possibly create a human being more competitive than Annabeth Chase. Percy thinks that the world would actually explode if anybody who liked winning more than her were to be born. She has to be the end of the spectrum, he thinks, because nobody else would win their third round of Grand Theft Auto and do the dance that she is doing.

Annabeth has all the dignity in the world, until she wins at something. Then she throws her dignity out the window in order to show off her choreographed "I won!" dance, which has slightly, but not completely, different dance moves than her "I told you so" dance. Since they started filming Anna and the French Kiss, Percy has seen this dance more than a dozen times, and every time, her hip-swings seem to get larger. Which just means that Annabeth is getting more comfortable around their new friends, not that she is suddenly a good dancer.

Piper still can't watch it without laughing. Hazel could win any straight-faced contest with sheer force of will, but Percy still catches her smiling into her hand as she looks up from her script- she never plays games with them, always choosing to study instead. Jason deeply admires this work ethic, but most of the time, the call of Call of Duty is too strong for him.

These are always Percy's favorite moments of filming a movie. Not the moments on set, when he is either freezing his ass off or melting under the lights. No, he likes these moments, right here, when there's a group of kids clustered into a trailer playing video games and just getting to be kids while they wait for lighting adjustments, or for the set up for the next scene.

Percy's trailer is the most popular because that is where the video games are. They always seem to end up in there- Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, and Hazel, plus Leo and Frank. Frank is a production assistant, and he wants to be a director one day. Percy has no doubt he's actually going to get what he wants. The few times they've sat down and really talked about film, Frank has known what he's talking about.

Leo works with lighting, and he and Frank knew each other because of some sort of geeky, prestigious film camp that they had both gone to when they were teenagers. Percy doesn't know much about Leo except for the fact that they have eerily similar senses of humor and Leo is unbelievably good at playing Super Mario Bros. He's the kind of guy who will pull a clock apart just for the joy of putting it back together, which is why he is _not_ allowed inside of Annabeth's trailer. She doesn't trust him with her gramophone.

"You owe me," Annabeth is saying to Leo, wiggling her fingers in his direction, causing Piper to choke on her sip of tea.

"What did you bet?" she asks. She'd been in costuming when Leo and Annabeth had begun their epic battle.

"The last brownie," Annabeth says triumphantly, and Percy almost wants to tell her to calm down, it's not _that_ exciting, but it's Annabeth, so of course she's going to act like Leo has just been forced to give her a million dollars and a puppy.

Jason gets out of the bean bag chair he's been sitting in for a good forty-five minutes and stretches enormously, adjusting the glasses he wears off-screen so that they are perched in a more stately manner on his nose. He walks over to the table where Hazel has perched herself, right in front of the food.

"How are you doing with those pages?" he asks, nudging them with his finger. They're all aware of the fact that this is Hazel's first time doing anything really big, but as a result, she's less jaded than all of them. It's serving to be a mutually beneficial arrangement, actually. Hazel's enthusiasm brings all of them up, while they are always willing to lend some experience to her.

"I'm doing well, I think," Hazel says, always so mellow. "The snacks are distracting."

"Sorry 'bout that," Percy calls over to her from his spot in a beanbag. Annabeth, having finished her brownie, takes the seat Jason had formerly been occupying and bounces around in it, trying to get comfortable. "I like having food in here so that I can lure children inside and cook them in the oven."

Percy usually goes on snack runs when he has a late call, and today the table has been filled with cookies, brownies, and candies for everybody to munch on. They could get it from crafty, but there's always something special about barricading himself in his trailer with Annabeth and plotting their next prank.

But then Piper had followed Annabeth, and Jason had come after Percy, and the four of them had invited Hazel, who had brought in Frank, who had brought in Leo, and the result of this is that there is now always somebody in Percy's trailer, no matter what. It reminds him of the Matthew's Universe set, when there'd been kids on set all the time- main cast, plus tons and tons of extras. He'd never felt like he was alone on that set, as he was always surrounded by kids who were similarly afflicted with acne and bad haircuts.

The exception to this had always been Annabeth, who had never had a bad haircut in her life, mostly because her hair has been the same since Percy had met her twelve years ago.

"Are you going to play another round?" Annabeth asks Percy, gesturing to his controller. "Because, if not, I want to play against Piper. I actually think she could come _slightly_ close to beating me."

"I would kick your ass," Piper says, the threat empty because she's sprawled out on Percy's couch with a book pressed against her chest, lazy as she reclines in the sun.

Percy is about to respond, but then his phone begins to vibrate in his pocket, and he fishes it out to see his mom's beaming face lighting up the screen.

"Hang on," he says, holding a finger up. "My mom's trying to FaceTime with me."

"Your mom?" Annabeth asks. "Wait, let me."

He offers her the phone, and Annabeth takes it from his hand and answers it. All she has to do is smile at Percy's mom and suddenly Sally is laughing delightedly, her whole face completely lit up.

"It's so good to see you, Annabeth!" she says. "How are you doing? How did it go, getting your degree? What was your most difficult class? How did you celebrate your 21st birthday? Is blue still your favorite color?"

Annabeth looks startled, but she beams at Sally.

"My degree went really well," she says, nodding and swallowing hard. Percy knows that his mom has always been like a mother to Annabeth, and he feels like it is partly his fault that they haven't had much contact since Matthew's Universe ended. "Um… blue is my favorite color. And it was a Tuesday, so I just studied a lot."

Percy's mom looks satisfied with these answers.

"But now you're getting back into movies," she says. "You don't want to do anything with your degree?"

"I do," Annabeth concedes. "Definitely. And a part of me wanted to leave immediately and just start interning and paying my dues at a firm. But I really missed being on a film set, and when I found out that Anna and the French Kiss was being made into a movie, I sort of… jumped on the chance."

"Is it strange, being back on set?" Percy's mom asks the question with an intensity that would imply she's just questioned Annabeth on her deepest fears.

"I thought it would be. But… Percy's here. So, no. It's not weird at all."

Percy leans over so that his face is in the shot with Annabeth.

"Hey, mom," he says, waving. It's kind of uncomfortable, leaning over like this in his beanbag chair, so Percy rests his chin on Annabeth's shoulder. She turns to look at him, sticking her tongue out at him when she sees how close he is. "How's it going?"

"It's great, Perce," his mom says warmly. "You have to have Annabeth over to the new house as soon as you get back to L.A. I'll cook!"

"How much of the food is going to be blue?" Annabeth asks suspiciously.

"All of it," says Percy firmly. "Literally, every single piece of it. Mom, there's _no_ blue food in all of Paris."

"I gave you a blue jolly rancher from my suitcase yesterday," Annabeth points out.

"I repeat: there is no blue food in Paris."

Annabeth laughs, and Percy laughs, and when he hears the other people in the trailer start to giggle as well, he realizes that he had completely forgotten that they were there.

They get like this sometimes. Just Percy and Annabeth. Lost in their own, weird world. He knows it isolates some of their fellow castmates, but it's _them._ He wouldn't trade them for anything.

"How is filming going, anyways?" asks Percy's mom.

"Really well," Annabeth says. "We're lucky because we all have a really good chemistry."

"You and Percy?"

"The whole cast, mom," replies Percy, giving her a look. He knows he hadn't been subtle about having feelings for Annabeth when they were kids, but they're in their twenties now. She can't try to play matchmaker. Especially when they get back- he actually doesn't want to lose Annabeth this time, and he definitely will if his mom keeps talking about their chemistry and scaring Annabeth away from being Percy's best friend again.

"We went to see Versailles the other day," Annabeth says. "We had a day off, so I suggested we go, and it was absolutely fascinating."

"Props to Hazel for remembering sunblock," Percy says. "That could've ended badly."

"Right, because we spent a crazy amount of time in the gardens," Annabeth says. "They were beautiful."

"I'll take you there someday, mom," Percy promises. "Seriously, you have to see it."

She smiles.

"I can't wait."

They talk until someone knocks on the door of the trailer and beckons them back to set.

"You guys go ahead," Percy says, wanting just a few moments with his mom. "I just have to wrap things up here." When everybody is gone, he turns back to his mother, who has not stopped looking like she's staring at the sunrise ever since Annabeth had answered the phone.

"You're in love with her," she says. "Still."

Seriously? That's the first thing she says? What about 'hey, Percy, do you have enough socks and underwear over there?' What ever happened to 'hey, Percy, here's the French word for snails one more time so you never, ever order them by accident.'

"What?"

"You love Annabeth," his mom clarifies. "Who did you think I was talking about?"

"Mom, I'm not in love with Annabeth," Percy says.

"That's what you said when you were fifteen, but you were back then too."

"I wasn't in love with Annabeth when I was fifteen!"

"Sure," she replies. "That's why you're blushing right now, dear."

He glances at his face in the little rectangle in the top left corner of the screen.

Damn it.

"You have to be quiet about this, mom," he implores, whispering it to his phone even though he's the only one in the trailer. "I'm dead serious. Annabeth can't know that I have feelings for her."

"Why no-?"

"Because I missed her," Percy says shortly. "I missed her, and I don't want to lose her again. I spent four years without her in my life and I realized, as soon as she got back, that I really wanted her there. So I'm not gonna screw that up, mom."

She groans.

"Or you could _use your words_ and communicate your feelings to her, and then the two of you could try to handle it like two adults who have already been married _anyways_."

"Mom!"

"Well, I'm just-"

"I have to go to set now," Percy says. "I love you. Have a great day."

"Bye, dear," she sighs. "Oh, before you go, would you mind having Annabeth send me a video of her 'I told you so' dance? I want to practice for when I'm right."

"Bye, mom!"

He hangs up as she laughs on his screen.

* * *

"Why are there so many sex stores in Paris?" Piper wonders out loud, cringing as they pass a shop which has a word that looks suspiciously similar to "dildo" positioned out front in neon letters.

"It's culture," Leo jokes. Everybody looks at him, frowning. "I mean, that's my guess. Could be wrong. Who knows."

They have a whole day off from shooting, and the result of this is the seven of them deciding that it's a perfect time to walk around Paris. The sun is shining, there's a slight nip in the air, and Percy has been craving a crepe for roughly six eternities. When he had made the suggestion to Annabeth, she had jumped right on board, and they had gathered the group together.

All of them, except Hazel, are wearing sunglasses and baseball caps. Annabeth has even tucked her hair into a bun and hidden it inside of her hat. It's just about the most recognizable aspect of her, and she can't go into public without hiding it, unless she wants to be accosted. Matthew's Universe may have ended four years ago, but it's still in syndication, and everybody has seen at least an episode or two.

"I've counted six on this block alone," Hazel is saying, frowning. "It does seem odd. You don't see that in America."

Percy, with his hands thrust into his jacket pockets, manages a giant shrug.

"Let's ignore the sex shops and just get to the crepes," he suggests. "They're fifty percent of the reason I decided to do this movie in the first place."

"That's a lie," says Annabeth. (She's right.) "You did this movie so you could hang out with me, goofball." (She's still a little right.)

"We should go up to montparnasse later," suggests Jason. He's had his nose buried in a book through the entire walk, only surfacing when he has something to say. "Famous writers used to sit up there and get drunk."

"And then go home with prostitutes," Annabeth says. Everybody turns to stare at her. "What? I'm not wrong."

"Does anybody know how we would get there from here?" asks Frank, unfolding his metro map. "Is there a stop?"

"We have drivers, dude," Percy reminds him, punching him gently in the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

"But it's a total tourist trap up there now," recalls Annabeth. "We should try to stay away from the touristy stuff."

"Says the girl who is about to walk into a creperie," Percy teases, skipping slightly ahead so that he can catch up to her. "Would you like us to go without you so that you can sit outside of a cafe drinking black coffee and complaining about Americans?"

"At least I would be able to do the complaining in French."

He grabs his chest as though she's wounded him.

"Does this mean you're not ordering for me this time?"

"Not if you don't drop the attitude, kid," replies Annabeth, tweaking his nose when he scrunches it up.

Behind them, Piper lets out a laugh.

"God. Sometimes the two of you act just like-" Jason's eyes widen, and he elbows her in a manner that is too conspicuous to be hidden from anyone. Piper looks horrified and stops speaking abruptly.

"Like who?" Annabeth asks, frowning as she tries to think.

"Nobody," Hazel says, casting a worried glance towards Piper.

"Piper, who were you going to say we act like?" questions Percy.

She struggles for a moment.

"Um… look! Another sex store! How many is that now?"

"About eight million," says Leo. "How red do you think Frank would turn if we all went into one?"

Frank turns bright red just at the idea. Leo seems delighted with himself.

Percy can't stop staring at Annabeth while she cracks up, and he thinks that might be the worst thing ever until she meets his eyes and hers soften at him.

* * *

They order room service.

It's not a big deal, it's just that they've been in Annabeth's hotel room the entire day, and neither of them really want to leave. It's warm and lazy, and Percy is sprawled out across the covers while Annabeth is underneath them, tucked inside of the golden colored comforter. And maybe there's a part of Percy that suggests ordering room service because he doesn't want to leave this room and burst the bubble that they have created together.

When she agrees, he wonders if she is agreeing for the same reason that he had suggested it in the first place.

But it doesn't matter, because thirty minutes later they have a huge spread of food in front of them and are happily munching while they try not to get their greasy fingers all over the pages of the scripts that they are looking at.

"I don't think we need these anyways," Annabeth says, leafing briefly through her script before looking back up at Percy. "We're pretty memorized at this point."

In response, he grabs both of their scripts and throws them over his shoulder.

"Okay," he says, kicking his feet into the air as he readjusts, turning onto his stomach. He's closer to where Annabeth is sitting up against her headboard, staring down at him with fond familiarity. She does that so much, Percy's starting to think that it's just the way she looks all the time, and he simply can't read her face anymore. "Let's try it, then."

"Challenge accepted," Annabeth agrees, putting down the piece of bread that she had been munching on. "Where do you want to go from?"

"Top of the scene, please," says Percy. He closes his eyes briefly, and when he opens them, he's not Percy any longer. "'Hey.'"

"'Hey.'"

"'You okay?'"

"'No.'" Annabeth looks just as uncomfortable as she should. Percy never fails to be impressed by how effortlessly natural her acting is. He always blows things out of proportion. It's why he's usually good in fantasy stuff, and period dramas. Plus, there's usually nothing truly _raw_ there, and Percy isn't so good at the raw stuff. He's been dreading the St. Claire breakdown scene since the beginning of filming. "'You?'"

"'Feel like shit, actually.'"

"'And you look like it too, Etienne.'"

"'Ah. So I get to be Etienne again.'"

"'Looks like it.'" Annabeth hesitates. "'How was it? With Ellie?'"

He isn't sure how he wants to play this, but as soon as he sees the way she does the line, Percy knows exactly how to follow.

"'Horrible.'"

Annabeth laughs breathlessly.

"'Sorry.'"

"'No, you shouldn't be. It's not your fault.'"

"'I shouldn't have dragged you out to dance. I shouldn't have-'"

He looks up, letting his emotions for her leak through, unfiltered, as he goes to grab her hand.

"'Hey. Anna. It's not your fault.'"

Annabeth stares at him, and he thinks it's acting until her fingers curl around his and her mouth remains popped open, just staring. He blinks, and her body deflates like a balloon as she snatches her hand away from his to bring it up to her forehead.

"Shit. Sorry. I forgot the line."

He doesn't know why she's avoiding his eyes.

"It's fine," Percy says simply. "We'll just run it again."

"Maybe we shouldn't," Annabeth says abruptly. Percy stares. "It's just… we have all this food, and we shouldn't let it get cold, right? We should eat now."

"We already-"

She lunches for something on the cart and stuffs it into her mouth before Percy can finish telling her that they already ate. It doesn't matter anyways. He's literally _always_ hungry.

They chew in silence for a while, not sure what to say to each other. It is the first time awkwardness has seeped into this hotel room. Usually, they're so effortless… it figures that Percy brings forward his real emotions and Annabeth stumbles. The easiness that they have on set doesn't seem to translate into this sunny, cozy hotel room.

"It's kind of sad, isn't it?" Annabeth says.

"What?" Percy asks.

"Anna and Etienne… they wanted to be together, but they wasted so much time. They wasted an entire school year."

"Oh," he frowns. "Yeah."

"Communication is really important," Annabeth says, laughing. "Seriously, if they didn't stop dancing around each other, they could have gotten together about two months into the school year and just stayed that way."

Percy shrugs.

"I dunno… being in his head… I think he's scared."

"He doesn't want to lose her."

"No. He doesn't."

"She doesn't want to lose him either," Annabeth says quietly, drawing her knees to her chest under the covers and wrapping her arms around them, hugging her legs to her body. "He's really important to her."

"That's exactly what makes it so hard for the two of them," Percy shrugs. "I guess there's something about their friendship that's really necessary to the two of them, and even though they both sort of know that the other likes them, it's like… why throw that out the window?"

"Like… what if it doesn't translate? Exactly," says Annabeth, and Percy feels like he is digging his own grave. _Shit_.

"If it doesn't it doesn't," Percy says, voice getting louder as his confidence wanes. He needs to get this across. Just one time. Because he thinks there's a part of him that has been waiting for Annabeth, waiting for kisses that didn't occur in a cold studio or a bed with an insanely uncomfortable mattress. He thinks that maybe he's always felt that Matthew and Charlotte were a precursor to something, and that's why it always felt so right to hold Annabeth's hand and be around her. And now that he's here, he's not going to act like he never cared. "Maybe it won't translate, but at least they tried. At least they made an effort. That's what matters."

Annabeth swallows.

"Maybe you're right," she concedes. Then she tilts her head to the side and forces a smile on her face. "Alright, St. Claire. Take it from the top."

* * *

"Where is everybody?"

Annabeth has her wet hair in a braid and is back in street clothes, which means she is done filming for the day. When she pops her head into Percy's trailer, looking for the whole cast, she finds him alone, reading over a script that his agent has sent him. He smiles at her, and instinctively reaches a hand up to run it through his black hair before he remembers that it still gelled like St. Claire's.

"I don't know," he says. "Why don't we check the other trailers? I know they're on set."

"Let's do that," Annabeth agrees, bouncing up and down to keep warm. Percy reaches over to a side table for the Yankees cap that he had worn to set this morning and shoves it onto Annabeth's wet hair. She frowns, going cross-eyed as she looks up at it and readjusts it.

"Thanks," she says.

"Don't mention it," he replies. Annabeth smiles up at him briefly, and Percy feels his knees go weak for a few seconds. He wonders when he will ever be used to her. Then he wonders if he wants to be. "Ready to go?"

"Mhm," Annabeth says, and then she follows Percy out of his trailer and onto their lot, almost skipping with post-shooting adrenaline.

She'd probably been doing something simple. Doing emotionally draining scenes over and over again doesn't usually have this effect. As she does high-knees next to Percy, trying to shake her energy out, he almost laughs at her. She seems like she's about to jump out of her skin.

"You're acting like a person who just tried coffee for the first time."

Annabeth cringes.

"Oh man. Nobody told me you had to build up a tolerance. I wanted to die the first time I drank a full cup of caffeinated coffee."

"Didn't you have an award show later that night?"

Annabeth groans.

"Yes! The Teen Choice Awards, right? And you made fun of my dress because that was what we did back then, and I proceeded to haul off on you to expel some energy."

They've reached Piper's trailer, which is the first one when they get past Annabeth's.

"I hear a laugh track," Percy says happily. "They must be watching TV."

"Let's go in," Annabeth suggests, putting her hand on the knob and opening the door, then barrelling inside ahead of Percy.

He rams into her where she is paused at the entryway to the trailer.

"What's going-?" Percy stops talking abruptly when he sees himself on the television screen, leanings towards one Annabeth Chase. Instinctively, he covers his eyes with his hand, like he's interfering on a personal, private moment in somebody else's life. Even when they were on the show, he would never watch their kissing scenes, instead choosing to look away whenever they popped onto the screen.

"Sorry!" Piper shouts. "You can open your eyes, I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Annabeth says. "Don't worry about it."

When Percy peaks one eye tentatively open, he sees that Piper has paused the show. He breathes out in relief, and notices that Annabeth does the same.

"It was just, um, coincidentally on," Piper says, eyes wide.

"We were having a marathon," Jason cuts in. "I'd never seen it."

"Also because Piper used to write fanfiction about you guys," Leo says cheerily. Everybody turns to glare at him. "Oh. Right. I wasn't supposed to tell you two that."

Hazel sighs.

"If it makes you feel at all better… we all grew up watching you two."

"And you're really good," Frank finishes. "Well, you weren't at first, but you are at this point. We're on season five."

"Post-breakup," Leo adds. "But I think you guys are getting back together in a few episodes." He glances over at the screen, where it looks like Matthew and Charlotte are about to kiss. "Or right now."

"Naw, they have some kisses before they get together again," Piper says. "Sorry," she adds to Percy and Annabeth.

"Uh, naw, it's okay," Percy says, still a little stunned. "Not like I remember anything from the plot."

Annabeth chuckles nervously in agreement, looking thoroughly uncomfortable.

"Annabeth, you pulled off those breakup scenes really well," Jason notes, smiling encouragingly at her. "Very organic."

They're still frozen in the entryway, stiff and cringing at the sight of their former selves entwined together on screen. Percy cannot stand the look in his eyes s he stares at Annabeth's face. He wonders if he still looks like that, even now.

"Hey," Annabeth says, turning to Percy and speaking quietly. "I know it's weird, but… do you want to watch some of it with them?" He looks horrified. "I know," Annabeth says, laughing slightly. "I _know_. But I've never really seen any of it… and I would love to watch it with people who grew up with it. Everybody always tells me how much it means to them, but I've never experienced that firsthand. I'm kind of… curious."

It's the hopeful look in her eyes that makes Percy nod slowly, despite the fact that he is completely drenched in anxiety. Watching himself act in a movie is one thing, but this television show is the reason he is who he is. He had grown up on this set. Fallen in love for the first time. Made the best friends of his life. Finished high school. Pretended to go to college. Changed, over and over and over again. And done all of that with Annabeth.

Annabeth, who is now taking his hand and leading him over to the couch. They perch themselves awkwardly on the edge next to Frank and Hazel, both of whom look very apologetic.

"So," Percy says lightly. "Uh… what did we miss?"

"Just a bunch of really adorable stuff," Piper says. He can actually hear the excitement in her voice. "Of course, my favorite scene is from season eight, but-"

"Which one?" Annabeth interrupts.

Piper blinks.

"Oh. Um… the one where you guys get into a fight and then that turns into a food fight and then end up making out on your kitchen floor."

Annabeth frowns.

"That was so weird to film. We had to stop and take showers and do it all over again."

Percy grins.

"Oh yeah. That was actually really funny."

"I think my favorite episode was the one where you guys did karaoke," Hazel pipes up. "It was really cute."

"Annabeth hated that. She doesn't like singing."

"Percy loved it. He hates when I'm bad at something."

"I liked when you guys said 'I love you' for the first time when you were kids," Jason puts in. "Simple. Nice."

"My favorite was your wedding day and the dress got all ripped up and you guys had to figure out how to fix it without Matthew seeing Charlotte in the dress," Leo tells them. "The fishing line was _inspired_."

"I think my favorite scene is when Charlotte proposed to Matthew," decides Frank.

"Three takes," Percy says, looking over at Annabeth and high fiving her. "She nailed it every single time. It was amazing."

Annabeth shrugs modestly.

"Well, you were really great when Matthew's dad died. I'd never seen you act like that before we did that scene. You blew everybody on set away when you did it. We were talking about you for ages afterwards."

He looks embarrassed.

"It was a fluke."

She nudges him, eyes soft.

"No. It wasn't."

Percy scrunches up his nose.

"So you guys are watching season five?"

Piper nods.

"Want me to play it?"

And when Percy looks over at Annabeth, she's still smiling at him.

"Go ahead," she says. "We'll be fine."

* * *

"Hey," says Percy. "So today's gonna suck."

Annabeth meets his eyes in the mirror where she is perched in her chair, getting her hair straightened out. It's weird, because she rarely had straight hair while they were filming Matthew's Universe, but she's spent most of this movie with it straightened out.

"It's going to be weird," she admits. "But it's a part of the job."

He snorts.

"The weirdest part of the job. Jeez."

They're filming the last kiss in the movie, even though it's the second time Anna and St. Claire kiss. They haven't actually filmed the first one yet, since it has to be done on location. But this kiss is supposed to be on the top of the tower at point zero, after Anna and Etienne have dashed up millions and billions of stairs, and the set designers have put together a tower for them to sit at in a room full of green screens.

Very romantic.

"We're used to kissing each other," Annabeth says flippantly. "Don't worry about it. Just know that I will be eating an entire clove of garlic before we go onto set."

They used to do that to each other during Matthew's Universe. When they were thirteen and kissing for the very first time, Percy had been so nervous that he chewed three sticks of gum simultaneously before shooting. But by the time they were seventeen, they were so used to making out that they would purposefully eat fish or onions or garlic bread, just to piss each other off. At the time, it was funny. Now Percy misses the feeling of ease that came with it. There was so much familiarity between the two of them- their lips knew each other, and their bodies, and even their minds, because it was eight years. He wonders if they will ever get it back.

Later, standing on the edge of set, he makes sure Annabeth can see that he is chomping obviously down on a stick of gum. She rolls her eyes and laughs and pulls out her pack of tic tacs and wiggles her eyebrows, and Percy can't help the sinking feeling that is deep in his stomach. He's an actor for a living, but sometimes pretending so hard makes him want to go home and sleep for hours. Loving Annabeth should be a lazy, content, sleepy thing- something that feels like that blissful moment between being awake and still being stuck in sleep. Instead, it puts him on sharp alert all the time. It puts up his shields.

Somehow, the ease of their relationship has made everything harder.

As they perform the scene, he can't even lose himself in the dialogue, because it rings too true.

"'How could I know if you never said anything?'" Annabeth demands heatedly. They're sitting on the edge of the tower, their feet dangling, their bodies very carefully situated towards each other.

"'Well, how could I know if _you_ never said anything?'" replies Percy, frustrated. It feels weird to deliver that line in a British accent. He ignores this.

"'You were with Ellie!'"

"'And you had Toph and Dave!'" Percy takes a nervous breath, which he was supposed to do anyways, and then touches Annabeth's cheek. She nuzzles into his palm on instinct, a leftover habit from Matthew and Charlotte. "'Look, Anna. I'm sorry for what happened in the gardens… I mean, that kiss was the best kiss of my life, and I'll never apologize for that, but I'm sorry that I ran away from you. I wanted to explain what was going on to Mer, because I didn't want to go into this with loose ends.'"

"'St. Claire-'"

He jerks away.

"'Why do you never call me Etienne anymore? It feels like you're rejecting me.'"

"'I have _never_ rejected you,'" Annabeth replies, looking aghast. "'Never.'"

They disappear into the dialogue, Percy and Annabeth, and Etienne is telling Anna he loves her while Percy shows Annabeth that he wants her, and they are a mess of hands and smiles and tears as they speak back and forth, resolving the story. Percy presses his forehead to Annabeth's and Etienne asks Anna to tell him that she loves him, please, because he's been waiting.

"I love you," Annabeth says, just before she presses her lips to Percy's, gently tugging his head down so that she can fit their lips together with more ease. A part of him absolutely explodes at the confirmation that kissing her still feels like he remembers it to. He sighs into her mouth and kisses her harder, touching her straightened out hair- letting it slip through his fingertips. They have done this a million times before, and yet it feels so new.

They know how to movie kiss- have been doing it for years- so when they kiss each other like this, it is effortless and easy and Percy sinks so deep into it that he is genuinely startled when the director yells cut.

They stare at each other for too long. When they pull back, Annabeth's is lipgloss smudged as she offers him a meek smile, and then they are back to pretending.

"We're going to readjust the lighting," calls Leo's voice. "You guys can take five."

Percy's heart is still beating too hard from Annabeth's kiss. It shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't be focusing on the way he has made her lips look, or the way she suddenly seems slightly lightheaded. She keeps sneaking glances at him, and their fingers are too close, and by the time Percy decides to just say it, he has convinced himself it's a good idea.

Pointedly, he switches the off-button on his mic pack, knowing that Leo will get him for it later on. Annabeth takes his cue and does it as well, and her voice is forced-calm when she looks up at him with bright eyes.

"What's up?"

Percy swallows.

"When we were kids… I had a crush on you. On set of Matthew's Universe."

Annabeth's eyes are wide.

"You… you did. You did?"

It's a question, but it sounds like she's confirming it. Percy is bright red.

"Yeah. I just… I dunno. I wanted you to know. I didn't want to lie about it anymore."

He'll lie about other things. About still wanting her now.

"I had a thing for you too," Annabeth says, voice abrupt. She looks like she'd had to physically force herself to get the words out. It kind of would crack Percy up, if they were in any other situation.

"Yeah?"

"Mhm," Annabeth hums.

Percy ducks his head.

"Cool."

They kiss six more times that day and don't talk about it again.

* * *

It is awkward only because they so vigorously, desperately want it not to be awkward.

They still have to be on set together, which Percy hadn't exactly been considering when he had let complete bullshit explode from his mouth and into Annabeth's face. He's half-furious because he'd let himself tell her in the first place, and the other part of him is annoyed because his words had been a complete lie of omission. They had implied that Annabeth's hold over Percy had lessened over time. They had implied that growing up had rid him of these feelings. And, worse still, they had shrunk his feelings down to the word "crush." Percy hates that word. He has spent his life loving Annabeth- fifty percent of it, to be exact. They have had so many years, so many kisses, so many moments where he touched her face or she leaned her head on his shoulder. And yes, Percy has had girlfriends. He has dated. But he's never felt nearly as intimately about anyone as he feels about Annabeth.

Which is why it fucking _sucks_ that they've basically been avoiding each other since they kissed. Or, fake kissed, at least. Whatever. Percy has never had trouble blurring lines with a fellow actor, but with Annabeth, he wonders if there were ever lines in the first place. When they'd been hired to star on a new show called Matthew's Universe, they were twelve years old and had no idea what they were doing. The casting directors had searched all over New York City for normal kids who had promise for being able to act.

Percy had not woken up one day and decided he wanted to become an actor. He had gone to school, recorded a tape, laughed a bunch, and forgotten about it until his mom got a phone call two weeks later. He had no concept of the idea that this was a job; he just knew that it would get him out of school. None of them- Percy, Annabeth, or his mom- had any idea that Matthew's Universe would go for eight seasons. By the time Percy was fourteen, he had realized that this set was home, and that it meant he could buy his mom a house instead of continuing to live in their shitty apartment, and that Annabeth's lips sometimes felt like home even though they weren't supposed to.

It hadn't occurred to him that he should've drawn thicker lines until she was dating some pretentious independent film star and Percy was stuck sitting next to the two of them at every award show ever. And it wasn't that Annabeth was particularly into PDA, or that she waved her dates in Percy's face. It was that he was Percy and Matthew and she was Annabeth and Charlotte and while audiences couldn't separate that, neither could Percy. He wasn't professional enough to. When Annabeth, as Charlotte, had a relationship with someone who was not Matthew, Percy could feel jealous _as_ Matthew. When Annabeth, as Annabeth, had relationships with guys who were not Percy, he'd had no excuse to hate them as much as he did.

He still doesn't.

They're on opposite sides of the set, Annabeth with Piper and Hazel, Percy with Jason, Frank, and Leo. They've all got coats on as they wait to begin filming.

"Big scene," comments Jason mildly.

Percy thinks that the cast can probably see how much he and Annabeth have been avoiding each other. She doesn't come into his trailer anymore when they have Grand Theft Auto playoffs. He hasn't joined them on the last few site visits that Annabeth has put together, making his excuses in an apologetic group text. Nobody knows why, but they know it's rooted in the day Percy and Annabeth kissed. Luckily, they haven't shot another kiss since then. It's safe to say that Percy dreads the next time they're going to be filming one.

But he dreads this scene even more.

"This is an annoyingly Annabeth thing to say, but… I don't like losing control like this on camera."

"I understand that," Jason says, nodding thoughtfully. "It's difficult to give the most natural performance because it means forgetting you're acting and actually grabbing the emotions of the character."

Jason has done enough indie films to know what it's like to not act while simultaneously acting. He is obsessed with that concept. Percy's actually learned a lot from his performance, which is a little bit weird because they're doing a teen romance film.

But three hours later, when they've finally finished shooting the scene and Percy is completely drained, it suddenly doesn't feel like a teen romance film. It's one of those weird, amazing moments when everything in life feels sharp and real and Percy is breathless with it, how much he loves acting. Suddenly, more than ever, he wants to lay claim to it. He has spent the night sobbing as St. Claire, shouting as St. Claire, and grieving as St. Claire. It is cathartic. It is therapeutic.

He paces up and down his hotel room with all of the lights on, trying to shake the energy from his body and desperately wanting to _do_ something with it. He had taken a shower and put on his pajamas, but one moment in bed had alerted him to just how much of _everything_ is coursing through his body. He feels like he should be able to throw his energy off of the wall and watch it ricochet throughout the trailer. He jumps up and down and closes his eyes and tries to calm the rush of adrenaline that is shooting through him, because he has never done that in his life. He has never performed like that. He wants to perform like that all the time. He wants to feel like this forever.

There's a knock at the door, and Percy shoots out of his own skin to go answer it.

It's Annabeth, with her hands nervously twisting together as she stares at the plush red carpet of the hotel hallway. When Percy opens the door, she looks up abruptly, concern in her eyes.

"Hi," she says, the word coming out breathy. "I wanted to… well… that was really intense back there. And I wanted to see if you were okay."

He cannot count the number of bottles he'd smashed on set tonight, but he tightens his hands into fists anyways as he stares at Annabeth, and he wants to smash another one all over again. he suddenly feels so invincible. Suddenly, he is wondering. She has her hair in a messy ponytail, and she's wearing a simple long sleeved shirt and jeans. Nothing she would ever wear on set, as a character. Annabeth is here for him. Because she cares about him. Maybe she cares about him in the way he cares about her.

"If I'm okay?" Percy repeats, not quite computing. "Annabeth, that was-"

"It was amazing," she says, cutting him off, and if he didn't know better, he would say she was gushing over him. "God, Percy, you were amazing. I've never seen-"

She cuts off because he has used all of the leftover energy which is tingling through his body to shove forward and press her against the clean white wall in the dimly lit hallway of their hotel. Annabeth's mouth pops open, and she stares at him with something akin to wonder crossing her features.

"Remember when I was shorter than you?" Percy asks, voice husky. Annabeth nods, wordless. "Not anymore, huh?"

She licks her bottom lip, her eyes flickering to his mouth. And that's all Percy needs. He kisses her so deeply that he feels woozy, and then he lets her take a breath and he does it again, and again, while Annabeth slides her hands into his hair, which is still slightly damp from the shower.

"Perce," Annabeth says, pulling back and pressing her forehead against his. "I think it's my turn this time."

He grins, almost wolfish in his eagerness. He just wants to kiss her again.

"Yeah?"

"Mhm," Annabeth murmurs, and she kisses him again before she speaks, taking her time with it. It's slower, though. He doesn't want slow. He wants to go back to the kisses that aren't for a camera, so much sloppier and deeper than anything they have shared as different people. "Percy, I'm in love with you. I have been in love with you since we were little kids, and I will never regret being in love with you. I thought going to Cornell would be a way to finally shake you from my body, but I think you're stuck in my soul somehow, and I want you here. I want you."

"I love you too," he says, and he's said the words as so many different people before, but he has never meant it as much as he does right now. "I want you too. Annabeth, I want to be with you so badly. Please let me."

"Yes," she mumbles, kissing him again and slowly backing him into the hotel room and slamming the door shut with her foot. She pulls back to look him dead in the eyes. "I want to be with you too, Percy. Just… be you, okay? Let's not be anybody else. I just want to be with _you_."

He nods in agreement, and for the rest of the night, he is more himself than he has ever been.

* * *

Annabeth's eyes are already open when Percy wakes up. The sunlight is streaming in through the windows, and one glance at his phone tells him that they have to be at the studio in exactly two hours. When he looks back at the girl who has woken up in his bed, he tenses uncomfortably at the nervous look on her face.

"Hey," Percy offers.

"Hi."

"So that was… um… crazy."

Annabeth laughs. Annabeth-currently-naked-in-Percy-Jackson's-bed-Chase _laughs_. This is his most favoritest form of laughing Annabeth.

"Right. It was."

"But this morning isn't going to be awkward," Percy says lightly. She raises her eyebrows.

"Oh, it isn't?"

"Nope," he says, leaning over to kiss her cheek, then her shoulder. He rests his chin on it and beams up at her, squinting slightly in the bright light of the morning. "Why would it be awkward? We've already been married."

She laughs so hard at the craziness of all of it that she nearly falls out of bed, and it isn't awkward at all after that.

* * *

 _Percy and The French Kiss_

 _By Silena Beauregard_

 _Here at Halfblood magazine, we've always been a fan of a good love story. Which is why I was thrilled to have a chat with Hollywood's hottest old/new couple, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, who have given us a few of the greatest love stories of all time. I sat down with the former Matthew's Universe stars at their favorite coffee shop in L.A., where we tucked ourselves into a corner and had ourselves a good chat about, filming, friends, and French kissing._

 _SB: Congratulations on the film, you two. I saw it last night, and I think you did a really beautiful job portraying Anna and St. Claire._

 _AC: Percy was amazing._

 _PJ: She's trying to butter me up because she made fun of my tie a few minutes ago._

 _AC: It's got fish on it. Do you see this? He's wearing a tie with a fish on it._

 _PJ: Would you stop being such a pain in my bass?_

 _AC: Don't do this. This is_ all _on record.  
PJ: I just think there's something fishy about you not liking this tie. _

_AC: Do you think I could take him in a fight, Silena?_

 _SB: Oh, definitely._

 _AC: Hear that, Jackson? I will fight you._

 _PJ: I so sincerely look forward to that. You have no idea._

 _He wiggles his eyebrows and Chase breaks out into laughter. It's one of the sweet moments the public has come to expect between these two since they were spotted together for the first time a year ago, holding hands as they strolled through L.A. Since then, they have become the favorite couple of America, having been seen at a plethora of award shows and interviews together. They are usually private about their love life, but the promo for Anna and the French Kiss is possibly the last promo tour they will do together, and as it nears its end, they're both aware of it._

 _SB: What led you guys to do this movie together? Were you trying to recreate that Matthew and Charlotte sparkle?_

 _PJ: (snorting into his hot chocolate) God, no._

 _AC: As amazing as those two are, they're very different people from Anna and Etienne. Both of us just fell in love with the script. It was really as simple as that._

 _PJ: Plus, filming in Paris was a really cool opportunity. When the studio wanted both of us, it seemed kind of ridiculous to turn that down. We love working together- did as Matthew and Char, did as Etienne and Anna. But it was more about the script than anything else._

 _AC: Boring answer, right?_

 _PJ: For sure it_ cod _be a funnier story._

 _AC: (after a long pause) This is my life, these are my choices._

 _Jackson sticks his tongue out at her as she takes a pointed sip of her coffee, trying not to laugh at him. They're goofy together, but watching them interact is as seamless as it is when they are portraying characters. He makes her smile, and she has the ability to bring levity to him._

 _SB: Your cast for this movie seemed really close. What was that like?_

 _AC: We did a lot of touristy stuff while we were filming, and we all just became the best of friends. Which is great, because I think it shows when you watch the film. We genuinely enjoy spending time together, just like Anna, Etienne, Josh, Mer, and Rashmi._

 _PJ: There's some crew members that we became close with, as well._

 _AC: It's so rare that you come out of a movie with lifetime friends like this._

 _PJ: But completely awesome. Promo has been great. We've been goofing off together the entire time, just like we did on set._

 _SB: So you guys are still friends?  
AC: Oh, definitely. Piper picks out all of my outfits for personal stuff, when I don't need to hire a stylist. _

_PJ: Mostly funerals. We don't leave the house much._

 _AC: Ignore him. He doesn't know what he's-_

 _PJ: Doesn't know what he's talking a trout, exactly._

 _AC: I'm burning that tie. Burning it._

 _As they smile at each other, I decide that this is as good a time as any to bring up the subject that we have all been waiting to discuss._

 _SB: So. You guys took the world by storm when Annabeth was seen wearing a ring last week._

 _PJ: Yeah. It was kind of… a bigger deal than either of us anticipated._

 _AC: Which was nice, though._

 _SB: The public's support?_

 _AC: (laughing) No, no. The fact that we didn't anticipate it. I mean, I think it shows that we got engaged for us. We weren't really thinking about other people._

 _SB: How did you pop the question, Percy?_

 _PJ: Um… we were sitting on the couch fighting over the remote and I was like "hey, we fight like an old married couple" and she was like "that's because we basically are" and so I just sort of… bought a ring and was like "wanna get married?"_

 _AC: He brought me back to the Matthew's Universe lot, actually. They're filming something new there, but we got out of the car and stood on the pavement in front of our old soundstage and he almost fell down because he kneeled on a pebble._

 _PJ: I'm still bruised._

 _Annabeth rolls her eyes towards me and pushes her hair behind her ear, her ring glinting in the sunlight from where it sits on her fourth finger. It is a simple pear shaped diamond, resting on a white-gold band, and there is an engraving on the side that I am unable to read._

 _AC: He's downplaying it because he's afraid people will know that he's the romantic in this relationship._

 _SB: So it's exactly like Matthew and Charlotte, huh?_

 _PJ: We're trying to stay away from comparisons._

 _AC: They're a beautiful couple, and they are a huge part of who Percy and I are as people, but… we could never live up to them. They were written by a team of writers, you know? We don't have entire teams of writers making sure our story is perfect. We just… want to be us._

 _SB: So I suppose it's no use asking which proposal you prefer- Percy's or the one Charlotte gave to Matthew on Matthew's Universe?_

 _AC: Percy. No contest. Because it's real, and that's good enough for me._

 _PJ: (grabbing her hand) Yeah. Me too._

 _AC: We fell in love while we were playing other people, but he's always been my best friend. And we have found that we are the most us when we are together. So we're going to stay this way._

 _Well. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us._


End file.
